Juan María Vicencio de Ripperdá

He was the son of Dutch political adventurer John William, Baron Ripperda and doña Francisca de Xarava del Castillo.

His father was a scion of the ancient Dutch noble house of Ripperda, who became Duke of Ripperdá and Prime Minister of Spain but was forced to flee the country following a scandal.

Don Juan María Vicencio was subsequently raised in Madrid by his mother and her relatives, a devoutly Catholic, aristocratic Spanish family, descended from the princes of Aragon.

As such, he found himself besieged from two directions: Viceroy Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa in Mexico City, and his predecessor and now commandant-inspector Hugo Oconór.

The next year, orders came to De Ripperdá to remove the East Texan establishments back into the interior, now that there was no frontier to guard following the cession of Louisiana to Spain.